PA PA - Juan Covington, 3+ murders, Philadelphia, 1998-2005

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nbc30.com - News - Building Cameras Catch Philly Killing On Tape

... The shooter followed McDermott after she got off a bus on her way to work at Pennsylvania Hospital.

The shooting was recorded by post office surveillance cameras before daybreak Tuesday...

Police also released surveillance photos Wednesday that show the last moments of the hospital technician's life and the gunman who shot her in the head. Detectives said that the video was very disturbing.

Authorities said the photos show a man approaching McDermott from behind, firing a shot, and then fleeing toward a nearby parking lot...

Police don't have a motive, aren't sure if the gunman had been on the bus, and don't know if the shooter and woman knew each other.

The woman's husband is disabled and they have a 16-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son.

"She was certainly targeted for some reason, even if that person didn't know her. But, she wasn't the only one getting off the bus at 9th Street, so that, alone, suggests that this person, for whatever reason, decided he wanted to make her his target," said Capt. Richard Ross, of the Philadelphia Police Department.

Ross said police still don't know if the killing was random, or if the mother of two knew her killer.

"He's just walking behind her. He turns the corner, he catches up with her, but it doesn't appear that he is engaging her in any conversation," Ross said...
 
CBS 3: Sketch Released In Center City Murder Case

A mother of two on her way to work was shot in the back of the head by a man who followed her from a bus stop, a killing recorded by post office surveillance cameras...

A dark-skinned man wearing a light jacket and a baseball cap follows McDermott after she gets off a bus across from the Gallery, a popular downtown shopping mall. She begins walking toward the hospital and a man catches up and walks beside her. A piece of tape placed on the picture by investigators obscured the gun.

“Without being too graphic, you can just about imagine what takes place,” said police Capt. Richard Ross.
The attacker doesn’t appear to rob McDermott or engage her in conversation before killing her.

“He just does what he does, which was a totally brutal thing,” Ross said. “Totally heartless.”

The final image shows the attacker fleeing across a nearby parking lot...
 
If this wasn't a straight-out assassination borne out of some kind of beef, it may have been the first blow struck by a random killer trying out his 'wings.'

The grainy video makes it deeply creepy.
 
this is so sad ... she was just walking along minding her own business. Seems like someone paid this guy to do it.... maybe he had the wrong person??
 
By all accounts, this woman was a dear person that had no enemies. The kind of woman who did whatever she could to make life easier for those around her. In fact, the story around town in the medical circles is that she wasn't even on her normal shift. Allegedly, she switched some things around in her usual schedule to fill a hole in the schedule. It's so ironic that her kindness and her flexibility ended up with this horrible result. This guy can't be caught a moment too soon.
 
NBC10.com - News - Police Find Bullet Casing At Scene Of Center City Murder

... Crime scene investigators have pulled a key piece of evidence from a grate in the sidewalk where McDermott, 48, was gunned down. Detectives hope the single-shell bullet casing they found will lead them to the killer...

Maum said that a second look at the surveillance video helped them pinpoint the location of the attack and they dusted the casing for prints...

Police sources said that lifting prints off a shell casing is unlikely, but police will try to get DNA off the casing, which has the characteristics of a .380. They also have the bullet. Now they are looking for the gun and the killer.

Anybody with any information on the shooting of Patricia McDermott is encouraged to call the homicide unit at (215) 686-3334.
 
KYW Newsradio 1060 - News

A $25,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect wanted in Tuesday's shooting death of an Elkins Park woman in center city (see related story).

The Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley has announced the reward. The group's vice president is Santo Montecalvo ...
 
This is so sad. Could the guy have targeted the wrong woman? WHY, WHY, WHY? How do you explain this type of thing to children. Their whole world is upside-down now.
 
1986 said:
How do you explain this type of thing to children. Their whole world is upside-down now.
It never fails to disgust me that there are people that have no regard for the consequences of their actions. If this was random, it is very, very frightening. Any one of us could be walking down the street and be shot in the back of the head for no apparent reason. No robbery, no sexual assault, just a bullet in the head of an innocent woman, working to support her two children and her disabled husband. :(
 
KYW Newsradio 1060 - News

Her widower, George Amahanov Senior got word that the man who killed his wife may now be in custody:

"I am so happy that they have caught this guy. Before he did any harm to anybody else." But police have not yet officially confirmed that the man who shot McDermott is off the streets. In fact, after they cancelled a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Police Inspector Bill Colarulo would not comment whether a suspect was being questioned.
 
NBC10.com - News - Suspect Questioned In Murder Of Hospital Worker

A prime suspect is being questioned in the murder of a Philadelphia hospital worker in Center City...

On Wednesday, police called a press conference, but cancelled the briefing minutes before its scheduled start. However, sources confirmed to NBC 10 News that a suspect was in custody...

On Wednesday, a source knowledgeable of the current investigation said that the individual who assisted police in developing a sketch of the suspect has positively identified the man currently in custody.

There is also additional surveillance video that shows the suspect entering the Pennsylvania Hospital where McDermott worked as an X-ray technician just 10 minutes after her on the day before the murder.

A search warrant has been executed on the unnamed suspect's home where police reportedly found several powerful weapons.

NBC 10 sources said that the suspect is refusing to answer questions, he just keeps repeating his name over and over again.

Authorities also reportedly spoke with neighbors in and around the home where the search warrant was executed and those neighbors described him as strange.
 
Police make arrest in on-camera killing in downtown Philly (phillyBurbs.com)

... Juan Covington, 43, a subcontractor at the hospital where Patricia McDermott worked, was charged with her murder, reckless endangerment and weapons violations. Authorities said they had video of him at Pennsylvania Hospital shortly after the shooting, wearing clothes matching the description of the killer...

************************************************************
I can't get a link just yet but tonight's 11:00 news stated that Covington's motive was as follows:

Patricia, a radiology technician, was wheeling her cart around to the various hospital rooms of patients that needed tests performed. Apparently, according to Covington, she bumped him with the cart, and pointed her radiology tools at him, dangerously sending radioactive rays his way. He also claims that she was following him.

It was said that the police "aren't buying it", and I'm not sure that I do either. At the same time, however, when the police searched his home yesterday, they brought out box after box after box of explosive matter, ammunition, and one gun.
 
NBC10.com - News - Hospital Worker Might Have Known Alleged Killer

... Covington worked as a subcontractor who collected biowaste at the hospital...

Police searched Covington's Logan home Wednesday night looking for guns and explosives. They would not say what they found or why Covington would want to kill McDermott...

NBC 10 News has learned that the new video shows Covington reporting to work the day of the killing. Police said the clothing he was wearing matched the description of the clothing worn by McDermott's alleged killer...
 
Police sources tell NBC 10 News that Juan Covington confessed to the killing of Patricia McDermott on May 17

Covington was arraigned Friday in McDermott's slaying. The Center City hospital worker was a mother of two from Elkins Park, Pa.

Covington and McDermott once worked together at Pennsylvania Hospital. Covington reportedly told police that McDermott once bumped him with an X-ray cart and he feared he'd been contaminated. He also felt she had been stalking him.

McDermott's husband thinks there's another explanation.

"I think he might have asked her for a date or something like that. But I'm a happy guy that he didn't hurt nobody else and that they got him," said George Amarhanov, McDermott's husband.
http://www.nbc10.com/news/4720252/detail.html
 
A fired SEPTA driver who worked as a medical-waste hauler has told police he killed Pennsylvania Hospital radiology technician Patricia McDermott because she subjected him to radiation, police said.

"It wasn't a random thing, but senseless just the same," Capt. Richard Ross, commander of the Homicide Unit, said yesterday of the Center City killing of McDermott, a mother of two and a hospital employee. "We will be left with a lot of questions."

Juan V. Covington, 43, described by neighbors in Logan as oddly quiet and by former SEPTA coworkers as easily offended, was charged yesterday with murder and related offenses in the May 17 slaying. McDermott, 48, was shot in the head as she walked to work on Ninth Street moments after getting off the Route 33 bus on Market Street.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12135710.htm
 
The man police say confessed to killing hospital technician Patricia McDermott was charged today with the slaying of his own cousin - a Baptist minister gunned down as he preached in 1998 - and is being investigated as a suspect in other killings and crimes in Philadelphia and beyond, police officials said.

Chief Inspector Joseph Fox would not say how investigators linked Juan V. Covington, 43, of Logan, to the long-unsolved execution of the Rev. Thomas Lee Devlin, 49, at his sister's home on Old York Road. He would not discuss a motive or say whether tests on two handguns and a shotgun found this week in Covington's North 11th Street home provided the link.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/12144538.html
 

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